Wladyslaw lived in Tarnopol
and was active in the underground. For ten months, till the "liberation"
he harbored the Nadler family from the same town: Majer, Szymon and Lorka.
See: Grynberg, op. cit.
ZABLOCKI, Franciszek
ZABLOCKI, Karolina, wife
ZABLOCKI, Michal, son

Zofia lived in Tarnopol.
Augusta Reitman wrote in her statement from 1960: "In July 1943, after
the liquidation of the Tarnopol ghetto.
I managed to get out from it by sewers to the "Aryan" side.
I reached, in an inhuman state, the apartment of Zofia Zadrozny, now Pasternak,
a miniscule room and kitchen. The furniture consisted of a bed, a decaying
cupboard, a table and two chairs. At the risk of her life and of that of her
child's she took me in and cared for me during the day I stayed in the cupboard,
and at night she shared the bed with me. She was a very poor woman, who shared
with me the last peace of bread in such conditions she suffered me till April
1944, until the liberation". See: Grynberg, op. cit.

The Zagorskis with their
three children resided in Bielany (suburb of Warsaw). Eighteen (18)
people of Jewish descent passed by their apartment. Among them was
the poet Tadeusz Holender and Mrs. Kott from 1942 till the Warsaw Uprising
(1944). She came from Lvov and was given the document of Maria's
sister-in-law. A thirteen years old boy, Janek Wilk, was presented
to neighbors as Maria's nephew, although he looked very Semitic.
Danuta Grossfeld also spent some months in their home. The Tenenbaums
(three persons) found refuge there after fleeing the ghetto. The
father-inn-law, Kitel, was all stained by blood of his wife shot during
that escape. People started to talk that the Zagorskis harbor Jews.
The Zagorskis placed the boy and Tadeusz Holender with Mrs. Zolotarew.
Jerzy and Maria fought in the Warsaw Uprising in different units.
She returned to Warsaw in 1945 and found their apartment completely ruined.
Contacts with Maria maintain Mrs. Kott from the United States and Janek
Wilk from Germany. See: Lukas, Out of the Inferno, op. cit.

ZAGORSKI, Waclaw, writer
(not related)

In his book "Wolnosc w Niewoli"
(Freedom in Slavery) published in 1968 he wrote how he went about to procure
"Aryan" documents for Jews. He had a large percentage of Jews in
his underground socialist organization "Wolnosc" (Freedom). These
documents became necessary in the eastern territories already in spring
of 1940. He got them by an understanding with the representatives
of the Chief Command of ZWZ (Zwiazek Walki Zbrojnej, i.e union of armed
struggle), which later became the AK (Home Army). They took many
such authentic documents in blanco, with pre-war signatures and seals,
from Warsaw (after its capitulation to the Germans in early October 1939).
The actress Jadwiga Nowakowski, alias Jaga Boryta, was the liaison officer
who took from Waclaw the photographs and the fictional data to a special
"box" and returned them completed in 2 days. They were necessary
also for the families of Jews involved in the underground. It was
not always easy. When the photographs began showing more and more
Semitic faces, the Chief Command refused them, fearing that the entire
process would be compromised. Waclaw overcame these difficulties
showing them such a photograph that was refused and giving them the true
name of the person represented on it, the wife of the famous historian,
Szymon Askenazy (of Jewish extraction). This convinced them.
He got most of these false documents between August and September 1943.
Then the documents predating the war were invalidated and Germans required
the Kennkarte in duplicate, based on a birth certificate, beside the
Polish prewar identity documents. Many parish priests issued birth
certificates from the parish books, for people deceased, removing from
them the entries relating to their death. Before the German attack
on Soviet Russia on June 22, 1941, many such certificates were issued as
if coming from the eastern territories, which were under the Soviet control,
since September 17, 1939. Some priests had documents in blanco not
giving the location of the parish or escaped to the west with their sets
of seals. These documents, prepared by underground cells, were done
with great perfection. Some other people produced false documents
for profit, but these usually were of very poor quality and did not protect
the bearer. See: Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit.

ZAHACZEWSKI, Stanislawa,
see LANGER, Mrs., mother
ZAJAC, Ewa

ZAJAC, Feliks (not related)
ZAJAC, Marianna, wife
ZAJAC, Jozef, son

ZAJAC, Jozef (another one,
not related)
ZAJAC, Bronislawa, wife

Jozef, a prewar officer of
the Polish Army and member of the AK and his wife took into their home
and kept until the end of the war the girl Chawiwa Burst, whose entire
family was murdered and who roamed for two years looking for a shelter.
The couple was honored as "Righteous" on May 6, 1999 in Lublin, as announced
the Israeli Embassy in Poland.

The family with four children
resided in Przemysl. In 1942 they were asked to extract from the
Drohobycz ghetto Felicja Adieren, a pharmacist and Dr. Jozef Blam, a physician.
Maria and Krystyna went to Drohobycz and after many difficulties managed
to extricate the above-mentioned people and bring them to Przemysl.
At first they placed them with relatives in the village of Buszkowice,
but this being not safe enough, they brought them home. They prepared
two hideouts: one in the corridor under the stairs, the other in the kitchen.
The Jews stayed in them only in moments of danger, two years until the
end of the war. Everybody in the house had some task to fulfill.
In order to feed eight (8) persons the parents bought food even from Germans,
who came to the apartment. That gave them some alibi that they have
nothing to hide. They also planned to get out of the ghetto the daughter
of Felicja Adieren, but she was taken to en extermination camp before they
could rescue her. Felicja remained in Przemysl and died in 1964.
Dr. Blam wrote in 1988 to the ZIH (Jewish Historical Institute) from the
USA that Maria came for him and for his betrothed to Drohobycz, but she
had been taken away before that. Instead, her mother, Felicja was
rescued. The help of that family lasted from Nov. 3, 1942 till May
1945 and was completely selfless. The children stayed always on guard.
He remembered that when he asked Jozef the boy (13) if he would not tell
somebody if asked about them, Jozef replied: "I am a Pole. I will
not betray. You are our family." See: Grynberg, op. cit.

The certificate of "Righteous
among the Nations" dated June 27, 1985 and photographs of members of the
family appear in the book by Dr. Waclaw Zajaczkowski, "Martyrs of Charity".
Washington, D. C., St. Maximilian Kolbe Foundation, 1988. Regina
Zajaczkowski, with the permission of her son-in-law, Ludwik Janiak, sheltered
in his house in Wlodzimierz, in Wohlinia a Jewish woman, Irena F. with
her baby. But Irena betrayed to the Soviet secret police a unit of
the AK. Ludwik and four of his pals from it were deported for forced
labor to Siberia. He returned from it three years later, all swollen
from malnutrition, and soon died of it. His mother, Regina, remained
in Russia just to educate the baby of Irena F., Ania and bring the girl
to Poland. She died of a heart attack. Irena F. with her daughter,
Ania went to Israel, but none showed up at the ceremony of tree planting
in the "Alley of the Just" at Yad Vashem by the author of the book mentioned
above in honor of his family. His sister, Maria Janiak died the very
same day.

ZAJACZKOWSKI, Zofia (not
related)

Zofia lived im Cracow, with
her mother, her little daughter, Gabi and two unmarried sisters.
Her husband, officer in the Polish Army, had been shot at Katyn by the
Soviets in the spring of 1940, one of ca. 22,000 Polish officers POW, so
murdered. From March 1942 until January 1945, for almost three years,
she hid a little girl, Christine M. (5) on the demand of her well-to-do
parents. When the money paid for her upkeep ran out, Zofia continued
to care for that girl. Christine, now married, mother of two sons
wrote in 1997 from the USA: "I'm sure there was anti-Semitism in Poland,
in Krakow (Cracow). Much about that has been written and discussed,
but I must say that my personal experience and that of my parents was quite
the opposite. The people with whom we were in direct contact during
the war were anything but. First of all there were the three families
who hid us: my mother, my father and me by three different families in
three different homes. We owe them our lives. Then there were
the workers in my grandfather's factory, all Gentiles, who played a crucial
part in our survival. They found the three families on the same street
on which the factory was located. During the war one of these workers
accompanied my mother to the site where her father had buried some gold
coins, Krugerrands, which were essential to our survival. Later on,
this man would go there by himself and bring my mother the money.
Every time he did it, he risked his life and it would have been very easy
for him to disappear with the money. There was no law to which we
could appeal. It seems that my grandfather was a kind, generous boss
and that maybe why those who worked for him were eager to help. The
family who sheltered me was very decent and hard-working one. They
were observant Catholics and I remember going with them to church.
I was 'passing' as Gaby's Gentile cousin..." Christine and Gaby were reunited
in 1994 for several months. Gabi filled her on details of their life
together during the war, when Christine saw her father rarely, but her
mother quite often. "She would come every Sunday and take us to our
old apartment. A German officer occupied now that apartment, but
not on Sundays. She gave us our weekly bath, a luxury we did not
have at Gabi's home". Christine relates how once she had to hide
under the sofa infested by lice on which Zofia's friends sat when visiting
her. That was not as bad as when the Gestapo came to call.
They used often do house searches, sudden, unannounced, terrifying, called
"Aktion" in which they were looking for anything or anyone suspicious. "When
the Russians entered Cracow my parents offered them a part of their apartment.
Soon a horse was stabled in our living room and our beautiful furniture
had been chopped up and used for firewood." This account comes from
a letter to this researcher from Gabi, with a photograph, of her with Christine
standing between her husband and her father in one loving family group.

The Zalwowskis farmed at
Zbaraz, Tarnopol prov. They had five sons. In June 1943 the Germans
liquidated the Zbaraz ghetto, deporting some Jews to Belzec, killing others
on the spot. Michal Zamojre and Izaak Kornberg, escaped from the
massacre and the deportation and came to the Zalwowkis for help.
The latter made a hideout in the pigsty, with an exit outside the farm
buildings. Stanislaw brought the Altscher couple with a newborn baby
into his home. Stanislaw and Michal took the baby to the Sisters
telling them that they found it. Tekla discovered in the bushes two
girls (8-10) crying bitterly. Their mother had been killed in an
"Aktion". The girls were placed with Franciszek's sister, Maria Kozak.
All the fugitives survived. In 1944 the Altschers recovered their
daughter from the Sisters. Maria Kozak and the Sisters do not seem
to be recognized. See Grynberg, op. cit.

ZALWOWSKI, Maria (not related)

ZALUSKI, Karolina
ZALUSKI-KRZYZANOWSKI, Lidia,
daughter

Karolina and Lidia resided
in Lvov. From 1942 till 1944 they harbored seven (7) persons of Jewish
extraction, including three (3) children. In their apartment they
kept Grzegorz and Dora Wiernik and the others in an apartment rented under
the name of Maria Kulik (q.v.) with her permission. They were beside
the Wierniks: Herman Fuchs, Gizela Gruenbaum, Adam Landsberg, Roma Raps
and Anita Teitelbaum. Karolina and Lidia brought them food there and
cared for them in a systematic way. They did not take any payment
for it and did it just from religious and humanitarian motives. All
the Jews survived. Herman Fuchs and the Wierniks died after the war
in Poland, the others went to Israel. See: Grynberg, op. cit.

Zofia lived in Warsaw and
occasionally in Anin. In the spring of 1943 she got the Fersztending
couple, Rachela and Abraham Hersz, out of the ghetto. She placed
them with her aunt, a Mrs. Wojtysiak, and later in a house rented in Anin.
She got false Kennkarten for them. Because of a denunciation she
moved them back to Warsaw to her relatives and later to a rented apartment.
Abraham Hersz was murdered with other patients in the Wolski hospital in
September 1944. His wife and son, Bernard, survived. Bernard
had not gone into the ghetto. Later (under the name of Krawczyk)
he married Zofia. As result of her war experiences, Zofia is today
a complete invalid. See: Grynberg, op. cit.

The Zawadas lived in the
village of Siemianowka, near Lvov. Rudolf was a lineman and his son
worked in the gypsum factory at Szczerzec. Rudolf employed Jews.
Edward protected the workers in the factory from the new German manager,
Klotz. They cared particularly for the Akerman family, who had escaped
from Cracow to Lvov. In 1943 Karol Akerman was put into the Drohobycz
ghetto, but escaped and benefited from Zawada's help again, staying there
with his wife and receiving food till 1944. Other Jews benefited
also from Zawadas' help: Adolf Kandel and Leon Schmorak, the owner of the
gypsum factory. On July 29, 1985 Prof. Karol Akerman testified before
the ZIH (Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw) to all the facts mentioned
above, with the addition that all that help had been totally disinterested.
See: Grynberg, op. cit.

ZAWADKA, Andrzej
ZAWADKA, Marianna, wife

ZAWADZKI, Boleslaw

Boleslaw Zawadzki, from the
village of Klarysew, is mentioned among many other Poles who harbored for
over three years a Jewish woman, Fela Rotszajn from Jeziorny. Fela
wrote to the paper "Trybuna Ludu" that she thanks heartily the following
good people who at the risk of their lives sheltered, fed and cared for
her: Wojciech, Dominik from Leg, Edmund Komorowski from Konstancin, the
priest Antoni Konieczny from Slomczyn, Kazimierz Wandel from Leg, Wladyslaw
Moskalewicz, Stanislawa Suchecki, Wladyslaw Zdunczyk, all three from Slomczyn,
Andrzej Rossman and a certain Kornelli from Bielawa, Jerzy Mrowka and Zbigniew
Kepka, both from Mirkowa. It seems that none of them, beside Boleslaw,
has been recognized as "Righteous". See: Wronski and Zwolakowa, op.
cit.

ZAWADZKI, Franciszek (not
related)

ZAWADZKI, Konstancja (not
related)
ZAWADZKI, Helena, daughter

ZAWADZKI, Olga, born BOCHENSKI
(not related)

Olga harbored on her estate
Czuszowo, near Proszowice, Cracow prov., her Jewish schoolmate of very
Semitic features. That girl left after the war for Israel.
The written statement by Maria Pruszynski is in possession of this researcher.

ZAWADZKI, Sabina, (not related)
ZAWADZKI, Irena, daughter

Yad Vashem in 1988 recognized
Sabina and Irena as "Righteous among the Nations". The letter announcing
it is dated: April 11, 1990. Case No 3858.

ZAWADZKI, Zofia, born GRYCEWICZ
(not related)

Zofia, originally from Vilna,
lived during the occupation with her 20 years old student son in Warsaw.
She met the Jewish Dr. Zofia Herzog. The latter had escaped from
the ghetto in July 1942 and came to Zofia explaining her desperate situation.
Zofia, although with some hesitation, took her and her husband Jakub in.
A German poster announcing the death penalty for harboring Jews was posted
on her building. The Herzogs had false "Kennkarten" under fictitious
names. Zofia presented the Herzogs to the neighbors as relatives
who escaped from Wielkopolska (western province incorporated into the Third
Reich). Already in 1948 the Herzogs sent a statement from Italy,
saying that they had escaped from the Warsaw ghetto on August 12, 1942.
They wrote that after a day of searching for shelter, they were received
by Zofia, who gave them one room of her three room apartment; also that
she got for them new "Kennkarten" and "Arbeitskarten" (certificate of work)
and all the time she cared for them with total disinterestedness.
They wrote that they owe their lives exclusively to Zofia, who acted only
from her good heart and her kindness, which they will never forget.
See: Grynberg, op. cit.

"Gajowy" took part in the
September 1939 campaign, was wounded and after leaving the hospital worked
in Warsaw in the Radio and Telecommunication Offices under German control.
He was in the ZWZ (later AK). During the Ghetto Uprising, on April
19, 1943, under the command of captain Chwacki, he took part in the attempt
to open a hole in the ghetto wall around the streets Bonifraterska and
Sapiezynska, by use of mines, facilitating thus the escape to the Jews.
Two German soldiers and two blue policemen perished in this fight.
Two AK men, Jozef Wilk and Eugeniusz Morawski were also killed. See:
Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit., Grynberg, op. cit.

This story comes from a handwritten
letter to this researcher by Danuta B., dated Aug. 15, 1993. Wladyslaw
Zbysz was a retired blue policeman in Warsaw, who, with his wife Stanislawa,
occupied one room in the back building, the front of which was a police
station. In the corridor the couple had a small kitchen stove.
At the end of the corridor, vis-a vis the entrance, there was a recess
with a curtain. Behind that curtain the couple let stay a young Jewish
girl Danusia B. (the letter's writer), who hid there when somebody entered
the building. Her only occupation was reading adult books, which
Stanislaw brought from the library. Danusia's mother paid some money
to the Zbysz couple, but Danusia says that it was not much, as her mother
had very limited means. Her mother tried to visit her from time to
time, telling the policeman on guard that she is going to visit the manicurist,
who lived in the same back building. Danusia spent there a few weeks,
until her mother found for her another shelter in Zoliborz (suburb of Warsaw)
with Jozef and Helena Wrobel (q.v.). Both families were recognized
as "Righteous" in March, 1998, according to the letter of Danuta B. to
this researcher, dated March 28, 1998. Case No. 6547a, which was
started in 1993. Other people helping Danusia were Zofia Korulski,
the engineer Kleniewski, Jozef Swiatek, who harbored her and his brother,
Roman Swiatek. This researcher is in possession of lively and most
heartfelt correspondence between Roman Swiatek and Danuta B. None
of them were recognized.

According to Miriam Caspari,
Aleksander Zelwerowicz, a famous actor and his daughter Helena (Lena) were
people of "incredible character" who could not suffer any injustice and
were always ready to help. Their three-room apartment in Warsaw was
a place of shelter for many Jews. Among others they sheltered for
a certain time Leon Feiner, the vice-president of RPZ - i.e. Zegota (see
under Arczynski, Bartoszewski, Kosszak-Szczucki, etc.). Once Aleksander
returned home and found in his apartment seven people, of whom only two
were "Aryans". He asked if there would be a place for him to sleep.
All exclaimed: "Naturally!" But he, seeing the situation, left his
apartment to spend that night elsewhere. See: Bartoszewski &
Lewin, op. cit.

ZEMBIK, Jerzy
ZERYKIER-MATYCEK, Marianna
see MATYSEK-ZERYKIER. M.

ZIELINSKI-STAWNICZA, Albina
ZIELINSKI-BERENGUT, Irena,
daughter

Irena Zielinski from Raciborz
described how she saw what happened to the village of Oborki. This
village fed the Jews from the village of Zofiowka. On Nov. 8, 1942
she saw buses full of German and Ukrainian police surrounding the village
of Oborki and searching for Jewish belongings. They took all the
men to Cuman. She saw under her window these men, driven to the train,
terribly beaten and shackled by their hands. After a few days the
police returned, and murdered all inhabitants of that village, infants
included, even people who just had come there that day from other places.
Only one young man hid and survived. She saw how they took the farm
animals and all that had any value and then they burnt the village and
plowed it over. They drove peasants from nearby villages to bury
the bodies. After seeing all this Irena continued as usual, to put
out in the bushes, milk, bread, potatoes and sometimes a piece of lard,
for the Jews who used to come there. See: Wronski &
Zwolakowa, op. cit.

Ryszard befriended before
the war Kazimierz Berek. When the latter was in the Warsaw ghetto,
Ryszard, having a pass to the ghetto, helped his Jewish friends there.
In 1943 he convinced Kazimierz and his wife Paulina Berek to escape from
the ghetto and come to his parents home, on false documents of course.
So the Berek couple stayed with the Zielinskis till the Warsaw Uprising
(1944) considered by all to be members of their family. The Zielinskis
were honored on Dec. 15, 1999 in Warsaw, as announced the Israeli Embassy
in Poland.

Helena, sister of Janina
Zienowicz-Zagala, took into her apartment three Jewish children, including
an infant and a sick child, who were very difficult to place. Nobody
wanted to take them, because of their pitiful state, lack of knowledge
of Polish, behavior problems etc. She took them in, although she
herself was a staunch National Democrat and somewhat anti-Semitic.
Janina described in detail the difficulties and perils of the transfer
to Vilna of several Jews, in which Maryla Wolski born Abranowicz (q.v.)
also helped. See: Bartoszewski & Lewin, op cit.

The Zloteckis farmed in the
village of Staromiescie, commune of Lelow, Czestochowa prov. Jan
worked as a horse driver for Jews from nearby villages, bringing their
wares to the market. One of the latter, a meat shop owner, Mosze
Reichman who lost his wife and a baby in the Czestochowa ghetto, escaped
from the ghetto and came over to him for shelter. They kept him and
cared for him without any payment. Mosze left for Israel. See:
Grynberg op.cit.

Adam Zoszak resided in Boryslaw.
In that town there were ca. 13,000 Jews. Massacres of Jews started
with the German occupation of the area. Thousands perished in executions
and pogroms. In 1942, the rest were deported to the Belzec, Janowski
and Auschwitz and to the other concentration camps. A group of nine
Jews who managed to avoid them, found an abandoned cellar in which they
arranged a hideout. Edmund Blum, who had a false Kennkarte, and Adam
Zoszak helped them. The nine were: Rosa Ebel, Malwina Gruenberg,
Serafina Holcman, Anna Katz, Jozef and Fania Seifman and Jakub, his wife
Tania and their son Leopold. Adam Zoszak undertook the task of feeding
these people from May 1943 till August 1944. Here is the letter these
people wrote on August 7, 1944: "Honorable and dear Sir: Our sufferings
finally ended. Our first thought goes to you, our dear benefactor,
to whom we owe in great part the fact of still being alive. At the
risk of your life, you provided a group of nine people with food for many
months - total strangers to you and coming from a totally different milieu,
and in no way connected to you. You were informed only that nine
people had dug themselves a bunker to save themselves from death from
starvation. This certainly threatened them if nobody could be found
who would provide them with food. You, dear man, honorable judge,
of Catholic religion and Polish nationality, transported in a rucksack
on your own shoulders loads of bread and potatoes even on frosty winter
nights for some completely unknown Jews. For such a gesture of humanity,
there are no words to express our thanks. We ask you not to be cross
with us, that in spite of your wish not to make a big fuss of it, we say
from the bottom of our hearts: God bless you". See Grynberg, op.
cit.

In Czestochowa, where Eugenia
Zugaj lived with her son, there were over 28,000 Jews before the war.
The Germans brought Jews there from other towns, so that in 1942 they deported
to the nearby Treblinka 40,000 Jews, besides those whom they killed
on the spot. Eugenia had a three-room apartment, two of which were
rented. A Pole brought her a 2 to 3 years old boy, whom she called
Macius, and later he brought her a 4 to 5 years old girl, Halinka and still,
a third child, a boy of 7 who however remained with the Zugajs for only
a short time. The situation was dangerous as downstairs lived a woman
frequently visited by Germans. Eugenia put the two children in an
isolated part of the kitchen and taught them Catholic prayers. After
the war, the children's parents claimed them: the Mecklers came for Macius,
the Schwarzbaums for Halinka who left for the USA. Eugenia received
many letters and photographs of the children with the most endearing gratitude
from them and from their families. See Grynberg, op. cit.

Jozef Zwonarz (45), an engineer,
and his wife lived with their five children in Lesko Krosno prov.
In July 1942 rumors started circulating that the Germans would kill all
the children in the Lesko ghetto. Dr. Nathan Wallach contacted Jozef,
known to his wife's family, with the request to shelter their little daughter
three and a half years old. Jozef agreed and placed her with Jan
Kakol (q.v.). Dr. Wallach and his wife were moved to the Zaslaw labor
camp. On Dec. 16, 1942, the Germans shot 400 young Jewesses in that
camp. The doctor's wife was accidentally felled down, but she lay
until the mayhem ended and fortunately, untouched, slipped away unnoticed.
The Wallachs fled to Lesko and asked Zwonarz for shelter. He decided
to help them also. Jozef built an underground bunker under the workshop,
near his home in which he installed an electrical bulb and for cooking
he ran an electric cable from the bunker to the city's main circuit.
But it was extremely small for four persons, since two others joined the
Wallachs. It was 5 feet by 3 and a half, and 3 feet deep. They
called it a "tomb". They did not leave it for two years, because
of the location of the bunker: to the right, the Gestapo headquarters,
to the left, Nazi security police, and across the road the Ukrainian police
(who, according to Wallach, were worse than the Gestapo). Given
the situation, Jozef did not tell even his wife about the people sheltered.
He asked his wife to bring his meals to the workshop and passed the food
to the persons in the bunker. His wife became suspicious. She
accused him angrily of having an affair with another woman. He could
not even defend himself and remained silent. As Jozef's charges did
not have any money, he hired himself out as a farmhand to receive payment
in farm products. Usually every night he brought them food and encouraged
them. But one time he did not come for four days. The refugees
thought of suicide. When Jozef appeared, Dr. Wallach stated: "There
is no way to describe our joy. He said he had barley with him".
In the spring of 1944 the Russian front approached and a shell struck the
workshop. Jozef decided to move his charges to the cellar of his
home, finally telling his wife the truth. His home was only 45 yards
away from the workshop, but the people from "the tomb" could not walk.
"I was the first one." Dr. Wallach stated: "I fell and could not get up. I
had to crawl to the house in the dim light of nighttime was like the blazing
sun to us, because we had not beheld light for almost two years."
The Jews stayed in his cellar six more weeks, until the Soviets arrived.
When they excused themselves that they cannot pay him for his expenses
and trouble, Jozef responded by taking off his watch and giving it to them
as well as a $10 bill. "Take this, it's all I have. You'll
need it to start a new life", Jozef said. He often repeated to them.
"I am a Jew like you, the difference being that I am a Jew freely walking
the streets and you are the hidden Jews". When some people criticized
him for having saved Jews he replied to them. "I am not ashamed.
I did what everyone should have done. They did not do it. They
should be ashamed" The Wallachs stated that he took food from his family
and from his children's mouths to pass it to them. See: Paldiel,
op. cit.

ZYBERT, Zygmunt
ZYBERT-HERTMAN, Jadwiga,
sister

Zygmunt saved his schoolmate,
Helena from the Warsaw ghetto in 1941. He put her under the care
of his family, particularly of his sister Jadwiga. In 1942 he married
Helena and a year later they had a son. In spite of great dangers
they survived the war. The Israeli Embassy in Poland announced that
they (among others) would be honored as "Righteous Among the Nations" on
Jan. 14, 1999.

Son and daughter of Wladyslaw
Zychowski, a member of PPS (Polish Socialist Party) who was imprisoned
and exiled to Siberia for his activity, they were both very active in the
underground. Aniela worked in the administration of the city of Warsaw.
Karol supervised the registration of inhabitants on the Czartoryskis' Street
in Warsaw. This gave him the possibility of false registrations.
Maria Sawicki, (q.v.) writes about Aniela: "She rendered numerous and priceless
services to the Jews. She recorded the first registration under fictitious
names and transmitted birth certificates of deceased Poles for another
registration by the Jewish organization. On the base of those documents
they received the "Kennkarten". I myself was her liaison and brought
her problems to be solved". Anna Bodner, a Jewish woman states that she
received from Aniela a birth certificate, on the base of which she got
her "Kennkarte". This saved her from being taken into the ghetto.
See: Grynberg, op. cit.

Dr. Jan Zabinski was an agricultural
engineer and a zoologist. Since 1929 he was the director of the Warsaw
zoo. He resided on the zoo grounds in a spacious house with his wife
and son Ryszard. Under the pretext that he needed scraps of food
to fatten his pigs in the zoo, he got a permanent pass to the ghetto.
This enabled him to provide his "guests" with food. As the September
campaign (1939) caused great devastation also in the zoo, the animals were
transferred elsewhere and in the empty cages Dr. Zabinski concealed many
Jews, up to 50 at a time. Several of them he kept in his home.
First there was a family of five persons, one of whom was mentally deranged,
who spent four years in the Zabinskis' home. He led out of the ghetto
the Tenenbaum and the Kramsztyk families, except those who died there from
typhoid fever. Besides them, the following Jews benefited from his
help: the Lemi-Lubkowski family (3 persons), the lawyer Maurycy Frenkel,
the wife of the lawyer Weiss, the Kellers (3 people). They also helped
Marysia Aszer, the well-known journalist, Rachela Auerbach, the sculptor
Magdalena Gross, the wife of the known Jewish boxer Keningswein, Dr. Anzelm,
Kinszerbaum, Irena Mayzel, Genia Sylkes and others. For such a large
group of people he received some financial aid from the RPZ (Zegota).
In spite of all his exploits he was a very modest person. He discounted
his personal role in that rescue. He pointed out that it was not
he, but his wife, Antonina who was the real hero; in spite of fearing for
her family she never asked him to stop. In August 1944 Jan Zabinski
was taken prisoner to Germany. His wife and son continued looking
after their Jews left in the ruins of the ghetto. He said that he
did try to save Jews not as such, but as persecuted people. After
the war he resumed his profession and published scientific and popular
books about the animal kingdom. See: Grynberg, op. cit. and Paldiel,
op. cit.

This Zak family concealed
fourteen (14) Jews in their five-room apartment in Warsaw; there was also
a carpenter's workshop. They camouflaged the entrance to one room,
where their charges stayed in moments of special danger. When everything
seemed relatively calm they could go out and benefit from the entire apartment.
Among others, the persons harbored there were: Zielinski and his daughter,
the Lubczyks and their daughter, Rozmaryn. Most of them were connected
with commerce. There were also two girls. All this was confirmed
by one of the persons saved, Mieczyslaw Zielinski. See: Wronski &
Zwolakowa, op cit.

ZAK, Walentyna, later SZTAINERT,
Ala (1915-)

Mietek Morgenstern wrote
a book dedicated to Wala (nickname of Walentyna) under the name of Frank
Morgens: "At Stake was Life"; War Memories 1939-1945", or in Polish
"Lata na Skraju Przepasci". Warszawa, Wyd. "Alfa", 1994.
Mietek lived in Lodz with
his wife Maria, their twin daughters 4 months old, his mother and his mother
in-law, Stefania. He found a birth certificate on the name of Franciszek
Chomczynski, on base of which he got his "Kennkarte". Being a proud
Jew, he spoke though perfect Polish and German and was a loyal citizen
of Poland, to the point that at some time (in 1943) he served as an intelligence
officer to Ponury, the famous Polish partisan and hero. At the outbreak
of the war he was called to the army. After many vicissitudes, the
September campaign, arrest by the Russians, escape etc., he met Walentyna
in Lvov in 1941. She was born in 1915 in a modest peasant family.
At the age of 14 she had to abandon school to help on the farm. When
she was 16 years old, she went to Lvov to work in the children's clinic
of Dr. Groer. Each of them told the truth to the other and they became
friends. In spite of his bravery, energy and resourcefulness, the
Jewish family of six persons would never survive, living openly as Catholic
Poles, maintaining friendly relations with a priest, for the rest of the
war, was it not for the bravery, cheerfulness and disregard of the mortal
danger of Wala. She found the refuge in a small locality, procured
food, coal for winter, and the necessities, performed all the heavy duties
in the frequent absences of Mietek, traveled in the German and Russian
zones of occupation to save other Jewish acquaintances, taught them all
how to behave as not to arise suspicion that they are Jews and kept up
their spirits. In front of an imminent danger to all of them and
having the possibility of saving herself, she refused to abandon them,
saying: "what will become of you, will become of me; we are all a family".
After the war the Morgens went to the US. Wala left Poland for Austria
with the sister of Stefania, who returned with her family from the deportation
to Russia. In the camp for Jewish refugees she was arrested as a
Pole or German who tried to pass as Jewish. Fortunately she mentioned
Sasza Winnikow, one of the two friends living in the attic of their home
in Olsztyn, who was an acquaintance of the man who examined her case.
A man from the crowd confirmed her story, as he knew it from a friend of
his. That man was Zev Sztajnert. They married a few weeks later.
In Milan, en route to Palestine, Wala converted to Judaism. After
a prolonged time in an English camp on Cyprus they arrived in Israel a
few days before the declaration of its independence (1948). They
live in Bat Yam, not far from Tel Aviv and Wala, i.e. Ala Sztajnert, busied
herself with the care of children. Now she is retired. During
20 years Wala refused to accept the medal of the "Righteous", saying that
what she did was a human duty for which she does not need any kind of reward.
But after many efforts she consented and on May 2, 1985 she was decorated
with the medal and planted the tree in the Alley of the Just. A few
months later the Knesset conferred on her and on other 47 such heroes the
honorary citizenship of Israel.

The Zaryn couple during the
war was staying on the farm Szeligi II, not far from Warsaw with their
sons, Szczepan and Jan. Aleksandra was the sister of Jadwiga Olizar
(q.v.) whose husband, count Wladyslaw Olizar, managed the estate belonging
to his relative, who died during the war. The Olizars had also their
children teenagers at that time. To them, through the good offices
of Mother Matylda Getter (q.v.) superior of the Sisters of the Family of
Mary, came in May 1943 the Jewish couple Lazar and Irena (Lena) E.
The latter came from Lvov, where they lost their families, thanks to a
warning given them by an honest German, a Mr. Krammer. Irena E. at
that time under the name Lena Koren, was employed in the manor as a maid,
but when it was realized that this work was too hard for her, Aleksandra
proposed her to take care of her children instead. Wladyslaw Olizar
found a place for Lazar E. on another farm. In her statement to Yad
Vashem in possession of this researcher, Irena E. states that both families,
knowing fully about the background of their guest, treated her very well
and were concerned about her health. It was she who petitioned Yad
Vashem on behalf of the two couples on March 22, 1996. After the war Lazar
and Irena left for the USA. The Olizars and the Zaryns were recognized
as "Righteous" on Jan. 29, 1998. The letter and Honorary Diploma
is dated March 5, 1998. Case No. 7521. Of the four honored on Jan
15, 1999 only Jadwiga Olizar could take part at the ceremony, which took
place on Jan 14, 1999 in Warsaw, according to the announcement by the Israeli
Embassy in Poland.

The family saved several
Jews. Mostly they were Wladyslaw Alfred's schoolmates and friends
from high school and the Jagellonian University in Cracow. The saved
were: Edward Nabel and his then betrothed and later wife, Krystyna and
Zygmunt Kern, who during the occupation had different names. Edward
and Krystyna were in the Grzegorzki camp, near Cracow. In September
1943 lorries arrived with the Gestapo armed with machine guns. Suddenly
they started shooting people. Edward ran for Krystyna, grabbed her
and pulled her and both ran toward the fence. Others followed them
but were killed by the shots and fell on top o them. When the mayhem
ended Edward and Krystyna, still living, found themselves under a pile
of corpses. They wriggled from underneath that pile and Edward managed
to disconnect the electrified wires in the fence. They escaped and
ran to the river to wash the blood with which they were covered.
Then they appeared at the Zbiks' house and asked for asylum. The
Zbiks took them in and kept them for two months. Through his contacts
with the underground Alfred got false documents for them, on base of which
they got "Kennekarten" and could go to Germany for work as Poles.
Edward Nabel, a lawyer, became Public Prosecutor for the Denazification
Court in Germany, working for the Americans. Later the couple moved
to the USA. Edward wrote in his deposition: "Their (Zbiks') help
was beyond friendship and sympathy. They put on the line their own lives
as well as that of their own families. It came from their hearts.
They never asked for anything in return and no money could ever pay for
their goodness, love and selfless help. The whole family participated
in that dangerous fight to save us". The Zbiks also helped Barbara
Dyga, who went after the war to Canada and two other Jews. They were
recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" on Oct. 27, 1983, and the letter
announcing it is dated Nov. 3, 1983. Case No. 2309b. On May
13, 1985 Alfred Zbik, and both his sisters, in the presence of the Nabel
couple and of the son of Zygmunt Kern, were honored in the Israeli Consulate
in Montreal. Ca. 50 people from Canada and the USA, press and television
attended the ceremony being presided by the Israeli Consul General, Yacov
Aviad. Alfred Zbik told the gathering that this is possibly the most
beautiful day in his life. Asked what he would do if something similar
happened again, he replied with his customary modesty: "The same".
The Israeli Consul, Itzhak Eldan, said it's important from an educational
and moral point of view, that Israel invest as much time seeking and honoring
righteous Gentiles as it does looking for Nazi war criminals." This is
a quote of the final sentence of the article by Danny Kucharsky of "The
Gazette", published, with a big photograph, in Montreal, May 14, 1985,
on p. A4. Similar articles appeared also in the French press.
Zbik had his ceremony at Yad Vashem a bit later, on Oct. 10, 1985, at which
was equally honored Mrs. Natalia Ziencina (q.v.).

ZEBROWSKI, Helena

Justina Gerszweld, married
name Goldgraber, was born in 1924 in Luck, Vohlinia, the daughter of a
typesetter and a midwife. As her mother died when Justina was 5 years
old, her father remarried, also a midwife. Justina stayed mostly
with her aunts in Wlodzimierz, where the family moved. She went first
to a Jewish school and when the Russians overran that part of the country,
to a Ukrainian one. At home they did not speak Yiddish, but observed
the Jewish tradition. When in 1941 the Germans pushed the Russians
back, the Gerszwelds found themselves in the ghetto. The Germans
added to their small apartment, a Jewish woman named Polak with her son.
Justina got cleaning work for the German gendarmes. One of them,
called Schacht, liked her and was good to her. The Judenrat (Jewish
elders chosen by the Jewish community, recognized by the Germans and responsible
for their orders to be followed by the Jewish population) sent her to work
outside. Soon there appeared Ukrainian and Jewish police collecting
shovels: The Germans ordered the Jews to dig holes in which were buried
the people they shot. Her stepmother, who worked in the ghetto hospital,
decided that it was time to leave it. She lacked air in the bunker
to which they escaped and in the night she was killed in the hospital where
she worked and to which she had returned. The refugees left the shelter
after a week for lack of food and especially water. They were put
in prison cells and after a month returned to the ghetto. The father
told Justina to escape from the ghetto. She did and went to some
Polish people whose address Mrs. Polak had given her, the Zebrowskis.
The latter had two sons (one was called Leszek) and a daughter Alicja.
Halina liked Justina very much, calling her Dusia. When Dusia came
to her for refuge, Helena, in a hurry, hid her behind a coat-stand, putting
on her a coat and her husband's hat, not telling him the truth. In
the evening she led her to Olesia, their Polish maid, whom Germans visited.
She put Justina in a recess behind a curtain. A Gestapo man came
for a visit, but did not show that he felt somebody's presence behind the
curtain. Olesia counseled Justina to go to the train station to mix
with the Jews caught on the streets who were taken for work to Germany.
There she met a Ukrainian colleague who took her straight to the police
station. Fortunately it was Szacht, who was on guard: He took
her back to the ghetto and put her with the Libers family, where there
were four daughters. "This is your fifth daughter" he told them.
Then she met her future husband, Mietek Goldgraber. When a new "Aktion"
started, a schoolmate, Susza Wasong took her to his bunker, which he built
for his family. There they suffered cold and hunger, but as soon
as the shooting and drunken shouts of the Germans stopped, they covered
themselves with white bed-sheets and crawled on the snow to the other side
of the ghetto. Mietek and Justina went to another nice Polish woman,
Mrs. Smal. She contacted Helena Zebrowski, who took both of them
to a Mrs. Slodkowski, absent at that time. Her housekeeper, a Jewish
woman called Blitz, widow of a lawyer, who lived on Aryan papers, decided
to hide them in their bunker and fed them. When Mrs. Slodkowski returned
home she was very astonished to find two Jews in her home but agreed to
keep them with the provision that Helena Zebrowski will bring her coal
for the heating. One day the Germans arrived searching for Jews.
The couple hid in an empty wardrobe. When the Germans departed, Mietek
put on a overcoat which had a revolver in its pocket, which he did not
take with him, she a shawl and both went to a Pole named Buba; that man
had promised once to hide Mietek for money. They had to cross the
entire center of the town and when they arrived at that place, there was
no house there any more: The owner lamented that the Ukrainians burnt it
and what will he do with them. He gave them a piece of bread and
sent them on their way. Justina remembered a good Polish woman, a
Mrs. Ziental, who harbored Jews. Her son-in-law, a rabbi's son, named
Jakir, having Aryan papers, was the commander of a partisan detachment
of the AK. But her bunker was full of hiding Jews.
Justina proposed to Mietek to go to yet another Polish woman, Mrs. Darowski,
an acquaintance of Justina's mother, who also kept Jews. In Mrs.
Darowski's absence her mother, a distinguished old lady, put them on sheets
in the pigsty and brought food on a silver tray covered with a white cloth.
For her they were still human beings. When Mrs. Darowski returned
she gave them some food and garments and set them on their way. From
there the young couple found the Polish partisans of Dr. Jakir, known as
lieutenant Butrym. He put them to work: Mietek to clean the horses
and Justina to cook. Finally they were not dying from hunger and
thirst. When the Red Army advanced, the partisans left to join the
regular Polish army fighting the Germans and the young couple stayed in
the woods. There, they encountered the Russian partisans form Kazachstan,
Turkmenistan and Tadjikistan, who treated Jews like their slaves, except
one who took a liking to Justina and Mietek and searched with them in a
lorry for some food. Justina tells how one of them killed his horse
and wept when he ate it. After the war, the couple went to Warsaw
and stayed with Mietek's cousin. Justina found Helena Zebrowski again.
She visited them often, bringing oranges for their baby and tried to dissuade
them from leaving Poland. Seeing their resolve, she had two eiderdown
blankets sown by Polish nuns for them. They left Poland for Israel
in 1957. After the Six Day war all correspondence came to a halt.
Only in 1990 did Mietek and Justina visit Poland. Both Zebrowskis
were not living anymore. Only their daughter, Alicja received them.
After returning from Warsaw, Justina undertook the necessary steps to honor
posthumously Helena as "Righteous". Alicja died also, but the Goldgrabers
invited Helena's granddaughter, Ewa, with her husband and children, Aleksander
and Justina, to Israel. The latter was so named according to Helena's
wish. See: Isakiewicz, op. cit.

Kazimiera Zulawski, widow
of the renowned poet Jerzy Zulawski (1874-1915) resided with her son in
Warsaw. Their apartment was like a station for many Jews looking
for shelter. Sometimes there were ten of them at the same time.
In her memoirs Kazimiera wrote: "To us, brought up in the humanitarian
ideas of the XIX century, what happened during the German occupation, was
inadmissible. It aroused in us the will to counter all the inhuman measures
of the occupying authorities". At the beginning they harbored fugitives
mostly from intelligentsia, from the eastern parts of Poland, Lvov and
Stanislawow, later from the Warsaw area. She stresses the honest
attitude of the janitor, who far from denouncing the Jews whom the Zulawskis
hid, (the janitors had the obligation imposed on them by the Germans to
declare all Jews they knew about) warned Kazimiera about any imminent danger.
There were denunciations and blackmailers nevertheless, but fortunately
they ended with paying the ransom. Stefania Dabrowski stated: "My
sister Rita, thanks to their help was sheltered in a convent. Every
day I stayed with theses incredible and noble people. Kazimiera and
Wawrzyniec heroically saved Jews of Polish, Czech and other extractions.
It is impossible to describe their uncommon readiness to help Jews".
Wawrzyniec, a musician and composer, was a member of the Tatra Mountain
Voluntary Rescue Team, founded by his father. He died under an avalanche
when in service. See: Bartoszewski & Lewin, op. cit. and
Grynberg, op. cit.

Son and daughter of Wladyslaw,
a member of PPS (Polish Socialist Party) who was imprisoned and exiled
to Siberia for his activity, they were both very active in the underground.
Aniela worked in the administration of the city of Warsaw. Karol
supervised the registration of inhabitants on the Czartoryskis' Street
in Warsaw. This gave him the possibility of false registrations.
Maria Sawicki, (q.v.) writes about Aniela: "She rendered numerous and priceless
services to the Jews.she recorded the first registration under ficticious
names. treansmitted birth certificates of deceased Poles for another registration
by the Jewish organization, and on the base of those documents they received
the "Kennkarten". I myself was her liaison and brought her problems
to be solved.". Anna Bodner, a Jewish woman states that she received
from Aniela a birth certificate, on the base of which she got her "Kennkarte",
which saved her from being taken into the ghetto. See: Grynberg, op. cit.

ZYCINSKI, Ignacy, priest

Dr. Ignacy Zycinski, parish
priest of Trojca, suburb of Zawichost, sheltered Zofia Z. and her small
daughter several times in his parsonage. He encouraged his parishioners
to help Jews and that in spite of the fact that some partisans raided the
parsonage in search of Jews, supposedly 19 times. During the war
the population's scourge were not only the 3rd Reich and the Soviet Russia,
but also all kind of partisans, be it Bielorussians, Jewish, Lithuanians,
Russians, Ukrainians etc., or simply bandits, taking from the peasants
whatever they could put their hands on. Living in Poland before the
war, they spoke Polish and could easily be taken as Polish partisans of
the AK. Father Ignacy was recognized by Yad Vashem as "Righteous
Among the Nations" together with the Przysieckis, Jozef and his mother
Maria (q.v.). The letter announcing it was dated Nov. 21, 1993.
Case No. 5901a. The cause was started in 1990.

ZYTKIEWICZ, Michal

ZEGOTA

This was the secret name
of the organization called "RADA POMOCY ZYDOM" (RPZ), i.e. the COUNCIL
FOR AID TO JEWS, under the home Delegate's Office (Polish underground government
in Warsaw). The number of Jews saved in Poland is still debated today.
Some Jewish historians like Jozef Kermish give it as 120,000 or Szymon
Datner as 200,000. Zegota alone, operating mostly in Warsaw, Cracow
and Lvov estimates that 40,000-50,000 were helped by it. Many
rescuers, especially in the country, did not even know of the Zegota's
existence. To save one person sometimes several dozens of people
risked their lives. Many of their efforts were unsuccessful.
It is certain that many more were helped then those who finally did survive
the war. Even more difficult, probably impossible is to establish
the number of Poles who risked their lives to help their Jewish brothers.
Quite a number of them, some known to this researcher, do not want to speak
about it even today. For an example of that attitude look under the
name of J. KOWALSKI in the book of Lukas: Out of the Inferno, op. cit.
It was the Polish Government-in-exile in London, which provided the greatest
part of the funds for the help to Jews from its budget: 37,250,000 he zlotys,
to which the FOP (Front for the Reborn Poland) in Warsaw added 150,000
zlotys.
Help from the Jews in the
West used also the good offices of the Polish Government-in-exile in London.
They provided between October 1942 till May 1944: 545,383 zl. to the Jewish
National Committee, the Council for Aid to Jews, the Bund, the Poale Zion
Left, Poale Zion Right, and the central Zionist Committee. Also
the Dutch Government transferred through the good offices of the Polish
Government $10,000 for the Dutch Jews in camps in Poland. Some much
smaller amounts came for individual Jews. This help came by parachute
drops. The 345 parachutists, of whom 11 perished, bore special belts
with an identification sign, the amount of money (usually $50,000 to $100,000)
and a coded address of the recipient. The London Polish Government
notified by coded radio messages: the AK (Home Army) command and the Government
Delegate in Warsaw, of the arrival of the aircraft, place, identification
and amount. Out of 858 attempts only 483 were successful, 63 aircrafts
did not return to base, but relatively a small amount of money was lost.
A detailed report of those activities and copies of dispatches from London
to Poland appear in Iranek-Osmecki, op. cit. and in Bartoszewski &
Lewin, op. cit.
Zegota was the only such
organization in occupied Europe during the Holocaust.

In the Alley of the Just
in Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem, there is (at least it was until 1985) a tree
with a plaque, bearing the inscription: